Energy harvesting which is currently attracting attention is technology in which surrounding microenergy that is unused and discarded is collected from light, heat, vibrations, electromagnetic waves, and the like to generate power. Examples of energy harvesting include vibration power generation in which power is generated by subjecting a piezoelectric device to distortion and radio-frequency power generation in which ambient radio waves are converted into power by an antenna. Normally, electrical energy created by vibration power generation or radio-frequency power generation is supplied to a load circuit using an AC-DC converter which generates a DC output voltage with a desired potential from AC power created by power generation.
An AC-DC converter includes a rectifier circuit, a DC-DC converter, and the like, and first rectifies AC voltage of the AC power to a DC voltage with the rectifier circuit and then generates an output voltage with a desired potential from the DC voltage with the DC-DC converter.
A bridge rectifier circuit using a plurality of diodes is known as the rectifier circuit included in the AC-DC converter. When designing a bridge rectifier circuit, generally, a size of diodes used in the bridge rectifier circuit is determined based on a density of a current that can be passed through the diodes which is, in turn, determined by a material of the diodes, and on a maximum current value of a current that is desirably passed through the diodes.
A combination of diodes and switches are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-182191 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H6-295591